Game apparatus.



B. PURNELL.

GAME APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 9, 191a.

Patented May 26, 1914.

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B. PURNBLL. GAME APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 9, 1913.

Patented May 26, 1914..

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COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH C0-. WASHINGTON. 94 c.

BENJAMIN PURNELL, OF BENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN.

GAME APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 26, 1914.

Application filed. June 9, 1913. Serial No. 772,681.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN PURNELL, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Benton Harbor, in the county of Berrien and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement to be Used in a Game Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in a game apparatus, and specifically to that class in which balls are rolled along an alley or table from one end to strike pins pivotally mounted at the other end; and the objects of my improvements are; first, to provide a means for yieldably holding said pivotally mounted pins independently in a vertical position; second, to provide a means for forcing to and holdingeach of said pins independently in a horizontal position, when said pins are slightly displaced from a vertical position, until acted upon by a resetting device; third, to provide a means whereby images or characters either appear or disappear independently above each of said pins in a quiet uniform-manner, upon said pins being slightly displaced from a vertical position,

.. said manner being entirely independent of the force of' blows upon said pins; fourth, to provide a means whereby said images or characters may be changed, so that instead of appearing, upon said pins being slightly displaced from the vertical position, they will disappear,or vice versa; fifth, to provide a simple means, operable from the front of the alley or table, for resetting all the pins simultaneously from a horizontal to a vertical position, with a view to economy of manufacture; sixth, to provide a means forelevating balls rolled or thrown along said alley or table, operable in conjunction with said resetting device, to enable their return by gravity to a predetermined height at the front of the alley or table independent of the height of said alley or table, thus enabling the construction of an alley upon the fioor and the return of said balls above said alley; and, seventh, to provide a unitary construction of the entire apparatus, operable from the front of the alley or table, such that a single pull on a lever will reset said pins from a horizontal to a vertical position, return images or characters to their initial position and elevate said balls for their return. I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a top view of the pins mounted 1n a frame over an alley showing the pin resettlng and ball returning devices assembled. Fig. 2 is a side view of the ball returning device, sectioned along the line 22 in Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow 16 showing the active member of said device in its lowest position.

Fig. 3 is a similar view to Fig. 2, showing the active member of said device in its highest position. Fig. 4 is a side view of a pin showing its pivoting and resetting rods. Fig. 5 is a top view of a fragmentary portion of said frame showing one pin in a vertical and another in a horizontal position, and showing two corresponding images with the pin and image actuating device. Figs. 6 and 7 are side views showing respectively the vertical and horizontal position of a pin with an image and their actuating device. Fig. 8 is a front view of a support for an image rod. Figs. 9 and 10 are side and bottom views respectively of an image rod guide.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The alley or table having a suitable back stop f has supported above it a suitable integral frame, comprising the transverse members or and the longitudinal members 0 upon which pins a are pivotally mounted, by means of rods 0 rigidly fastened by the caps e to said members 0 of said frame, said rods c also serving as pivots for the resetting rods b by means of the arms d which are rigidly fastened to rods b and pivotally fastened to rods 0. points ac and the longitudinal members ac supported in conjunction with the frame 0 the rods b are bent to occupy positions in line with pivoting rods 0, and are rotatably supported by said longitudinal member ac Beyond the longitudinal member ac the rods b are bent so as to form cranks of equal eccentricity which are all connected in similar relative positions to the rod cm, said rod am being held in its backward position by the Between the spring 2 which supports rods 6 in their highest position out of the path of travel of the pins (6; except when operated by the rod Q through the connecting rod o This construction enables an economical manufacture of the apparatus, with the frame 0 cast plain throughout, the rods 7) drilled and bent to shape, and the. arms cl, which are adapted to be stamped, fastened rigidly to said rods Z) the pivoting rods c passed through pins a and arms (Z and the pivoting rods 0 rigidly fastened to the frame 0 by the caps e which caps are adapted to.- be stamped.

Theball returning device is so constructed that a forward pull on the rod g which goes to a suitable lever at the front of the alley y will cause the arm 7: to move about the pivot from the position shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 3, thereby elevating hall's thereon and giving said balls potential energy due to their elevation, and kinetic energy due to the forward movement of said arm. The arm i is fastened to members j by means of the straps r pivoted on the fixed straps t by the pin 8; one of the straps r to which the rod g is fastened being braced to the arm 2' by the red It. The arm i forms a track for balls and is so shaped that when said arm. is in its lowest position it is adapted to receive balls from the track formed by the members h and when in its highest position is adapted to transfer the balls received to the track formed by members j of any predetermined height supported by s The arm '5 when in 1ts lowest posltion, rests upon members h with the bumper w pressing on the tongue Z, said tongue being fastened at the end farthest from the aforesaid arm, placed between members h, and having on its free end a lug m for the purpose of stopping balls when said arm is in operation, but when not in operation the bumper m rests upon said tongue Z, displacing the said lug from the path of balls, thereby providing a free passage of said balls to roll thereon from: the track formed by the members h which is sufficiently inclined to cause balls to roll thereon, said arm bemg adapted to rest by the lug m if the arm '2' is in until brought to an elevated position, but if the arm 2' is in its lowest position the balls will continue by gravity until they rest upon said arm where they will. remain until the rod g is pulled, when said arm will move about the pivot s until arrested by the filler n coming in contact with the bumper p The height balls are raised depends on the dimensions of the apparatus; and, the horizontal component of the velocity given them by the arm i depends on the force with which the rod g is pulled. The pull on rot g also resets the pins a from a horizontal to a vertical position by means of the connecting rod o which causes the resetting device to travel about the pivots '0 and when the pull on q is relaxed, the resetting device moves out of the path of pins a and arm 2' returns to its initial position at rest on members h as before described.

Each of the pins (4, of semi-circular cross section is yieldably held in a vertical position, when so placed. by the friction caused by the pressure of a spring 06 upon its upper surface, said pin being so proportioned and arranged that when it is slightly displaced from the vertical position it will assume a horizontal position on account of pressure of said spring and said spring will move downwardly, and when said pm is reset from the horizontal to the vertical positlon. 1t will work agalnst said spring, raising it.

The images of characters 070 are fastened tothe rod of square crosssectiOn cm by means of the lugs 'cZ, said rods operating in the holeson the casting shown in Fig. 8, which castings have openings to admit the strips 02' square holes 09" that serve as a guide to g'rotate the rods cm by means of a twisted portion in the: said rods when said rods are ;moved vertically through said holes. irodscm rest at their lower extremity upon springs 6b and are twisted so that whensaid springs move from their lowest said strips having The to their highest positions, said images will be rotated substantially one quarter of a revolution due to: the vertical movement of the square twisted rods cm. operating in the square holes age so that if said images face the front when said pins are vertical they will be edgewise when the pins are horizontal, in which case if the rods cm arelifted out of the square holes cg and given a quarter turn and reinserted then said images will be ed-gewise, viewed from the front when the said pins are vertical and will face the front when said pins are in the horizontal position. Said images are rotated by gravity and consequently are independent of the speed with which the said pins move, thus rendering their ope 'a-tion uniform and quiet.

The castings as shown in Fig. 8 are rigidly fastened'to the longitudinal members. of the aforesaid frame and have ears The images or characters may be con-* structed any height above aforesaid frame by lengthening the rods am so that each successive row of images may be higher than the one in front, or any other desired method.

IVhile the foregoing description discloses the preferred form of my invention, I do not desire to limit myself to such construction, as I am aware that variations and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit or sacrificing the advantages thereof. The right is reserved, therefore, to effect such changes and alterations as may come fairly within the scope of the appended claims.

I am aware that prior to this invention a device has been used to reset a plurality of pins from a horizontal to a vertical position in a bowling game apparatus, and that balls have been returned by gravity from the level of their landing at the back of the alley, or by being placed upon a raised track by hand.

However, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A game apparatus comprising an alley or table along which balls may be rolled, a frame mounted above the rearward end of said alley or table said frame being composed of transverse and longitudinal members, a backstop adapted to arrest the progress of said balls so rolled, and a means for returning said balls to the front of said alley or table; in combination with rods clamped rigidly to the under portion of said longitudinal members, each of said rods serving as a pivot for a transverse row of pins placed between said longitudinal frame members and a resetting arm pivoted to each of said rods for resetting the pins.

2. A game apparatus comprising an alley or table along which balls may be rolled, a frame mounted above the rear of said alley or table said frame being composed of transverse and longitudinal members, a back stop adapted to arrest the progress of said balls so rolled, means for returning said balls to the front of said alley or table, transverse rods clamped rigidly to the under portion of said frame, pins of semi-circular cross section spaced laterally in successive rows between said longitudinal frame members and pivoted on said transverse rods at points near their upper ends and near their flat side, resetting arms likewise pivoted on said transverse rods, each successive row of pins having its corresponding resetting arm and each reset ing rod having a similarly disposed crank connected by a horizontallongitudinal element, the'rear end of said connecting element being continually held in its extreme rear position by the tension of a spring except when manually operated from the front of said alley or table by means of a tie rod; in combination with cantaliver springs fastened rigidly to said longitudinal frame members, each spring being adapted to register with the upper portion of one of said pins and by exerting a downward pressure on said upper portion to hold said pin in a vertical position when so placed, but on said pin being displaced from the vertical position the downward pressure of said spring will tend to force said pin to a horizontal position and yieldably hold said pin horizontal.

3. In a game apparatus of the character described having pivoted members mounted above an alley or table a means whereby images, characters or other identifying devices supported above said pivoted members are caused to change independently from one position to another upon said pivotally mounted members being slightly displaced from a predetermined position, and to change back to the former position upon said pivotally mounted members being reset to said predetermined position, the said identifying means changing positions in a uniform and silent manner, independent of the force of blows upon said pivoted members.

4. In a game apparatus of the class described having pivoted members on each of whose upper surfaces a horizontal portion of a spring presses downwardly, said upper surfaces being so constructed that the said horizontal spring portion moves vertically when said pivoted member is rotated; an image or character removably fastened above each of said pivoted members to a vertical rod which is limited to axial and rotary travel the lower extremity of said vertical rod resting on said horizontal spring portion, said vertical rod being adapted to follow any vertical movement of said horizontal spring portion, said rod having a twisted portion registering with a close fittingguide.

5. In a game apparatus of the character described having pivoted members mounted above an alley or table; an image, means whereby said image is supported above each of said pivoted members and is caused to appear (looking from the front of said alley or table) when its corresponding pivoted member is moved from one predetermined position to another predetermined position, and to disappear upon said pivoted member being returned to its original predetermined position, said image being loosely held upon In testimony wheneof, I have hereunto its support whereby it may be lifted thereaflixed. my slognatnro n the presence of the from and given a quarter revolution, upon Witnesses herein nam d.

which it will disappear, if, before such BENJAMIN PUBNELL, 5 quarter revolution it appeared with a cop- YVitnesses:

responding change of pin position, or Vice FRANCIS THORPE,

versa. HUMPHREY S. GRAY.

Copies 9? this patent may be obtgined 45in" cents eaen, by addressing the qommissioner oi Patents,

Washington; D. G." 

